Supporting tanks only on the short ends

[Kalin]

Hi everyone,

i made a cart system to be able roll auxiliary tanks in and out from underneath my display tank. Well last night the sump tank started leaking and i think it’s because the 2x4s lengthwise were 1/16 too tall compared to the sides.

my question is - can i support the tanks only on the short ends? I noticed that the aquarium coop store is setup that way, but befoew i commit, I’d like to hear more opinions.

[lefty o]

yes, as long as they are supported in a way that doesnt twist the aquarium.

[Daniel]

I just setup two 75 gallon aquariums and you can see daylight all the way across the bottoms of both tanks, except at the shorts ends. So both of these aquariums are being supported on the short ends only.

[gardenman]

I'd be fine doing it with smaller tanks, but as the tanks grew larger, I'd get more nervous about it. Especially over the long term. Glass is an interesting material in that it's not truly a solid or a liquid but is an amorphous solid. The old stained glass windows in cathedrals are measurable thicker at the bottom than the top. The glass wasn't made that way, it flowed (very, very slowly) downwards due to gravity. You can even see this to some extent on more modern (1800s-early 1900s) glass. In a larger tank with not just gravity but hundreds of pounds of water trying to move the glass and just silicone holding everything together, I'd get a bit nervous about everything holding up well. The absolute worse place for a tank to spring a leak is in the bottom seam. Without a fully supported bottom you're putting more stress on that bottom seam. I've had two tanks (my 50 and 30 high) spring leaks in the last few years, but both leaks were midway up a side seam. That's not fun but even if not caught (and both were caught early) at most the tanks would have drained halfway. If it was a bottom seam, the tanks could have fully drained. Can you do support atank on just the ends? Sure. Do I recommend it? No. I want stability under my tanks and to take as much stress off the glass and silicone as possible. It's already got a tough job, why make it harder than it needs to be?

[Kalin]

upon further inspection, it appears that the tank is leaking in the middle. my leading theory is that one of the tank dividers i put in separated the tank walls enough to cause a leak 😞

that part of the tank is the refugium, so i will have to pull all of the substrate out and look for the leak there.